Saturday, January 11, 2020

Halls (Finchley) Limited - Triumph car dealers 95

Hallls (Finchley) Ltd advert in Motor road tests 1969
Halls of Finchley is the feature business of this article number 95 in my series about Triumph car dealers.

Halls of Finchley advert from Autocar 30 April 1937
Halls of Finchley advert from Autocar 30 April 1937
The Halls of Finchley business based in London UK started out as Hall's Car Sales Limited and later became Halls (Finchley) Limited.  The address was initially said to be Standard Hose, Odeon Parade, North Finchley.  Later the address was 870 High Road,  North Finchley, N12.
Halls (Finchley) Ltd rear window sticker
Halls (Finchley) Ltd rear window sticker
Finchley Coronation Brochure 1953 advert
Finchley Coronation Brochure 1953 advert

Halls Finchley Ltd advert from Motor 29 January 1966
Halls Finchley advert from Motor 29 January 1966
Halls of Finchley advert from Motor 05 May 1973
Halls of Finchley advert from Motor 05 May 1973

Ford dealer

When did Halls sell Ford cars?
Halls (Finchley) Ltd key fob
Halls (Finchley) Ltd key fob

Peugeot dealer

After losing the Triumph franchise Halls became a Peugeot.
Halls (Finchley) Ltd Frein Barnet Photo Archive advert 1979
Frein Barnet Photo Archive advert 1979

Commercials

Halls (Finchley) Limited truck advert Commercial Motor 1954
Halls (Finchley) Limited truck advert Commercial Motor 1954

Halls (Finchley) Limited had a truck and car servicing centre on a 11-acre site near Staples Corner, Hendon, London NW9. The premises are fully equipped to meet the requirements of heavy commercial vehicle operators.

Halls were a subsidiary of Seddon Diesel Vehicles Ltd, as well as Seddon distributor for London and Home Counties, and a wide range of parts and exchange units for Seddons were stocked in an area covering 9000 sq ft.

They also dealt with Atkinson vehicles.

New showrooms 1959

Halls (Finchley) Limited showrooms 1959
Halls (Finchley) Limited showrooms 1959
Halls of Finchley, Standard and Triumph Dealers since the early thirties, opened new showrooms in 1959. Originally Halls (Finchley) Ltd started with with one small showroom in Golders Green. In 1934 they moved to Odeon Parade, North Finchley, and subsequent extensions included all the premises on each side of the Odeon Cinema. The new showrooms, which had a depth of 80 feet, were adjacent to the Odeon Parade premises, with a spacious frontage as seen in the pictures.
Halls (Finchley) Limited illuminated showrooms
Halls (Finchley) Limited illuminated showrooms

Invoices

Invoices always tell a story.  In this case I have found two Halls of Finchley invoices.  The first invoice from 1968 is for an Austin 1100 which cost £793.

Halls of Finchley invoice 28 June 1968
Halls of Finchley invoice 28 June 1968
Halls of Finchley invoice 8 May 1979
Halls of Finchley invoice 8 May 1979
Both these invoices are from the Friern Barnet Photo Archive website http://www.friern-barnet.com . A great resource made available by the Friern Barnet & District Local History Society.

Redevelopment

Here are a series of pictures of the Halls of Finchley site.  The first photo shows the Odeon cinema with garages premises on both sides.
Later the entire building was used by a furniture store called Furnitureland.
Halls site of  Odeon Cinema 1983
Halls site of  Odeon Cinema 1983
The whole building was demolished during 2013 to make way for a new building.
Demolition of Furnitureland
Demolition of Furnitureland
A new block of flats was built on the site during 2014.
Halls site Street View April 2018

Show and Service Week promotion

Staff from Standard Triumph HQ visited the business and assisted the firm with week long Show and Service promotions. These were held by the firm at their Odeon Parade premises 21 to 25 October 1963.

Plea for information

If you have any more information or recollections about Halls of Finchley such as photos of window stickers, dealer badges or sill plates etc please let me know. I can be contacted via the comments to this post or on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stephen.weblin

Further information and sources

Link to the other articles in this series.

Link to face book page: Triumph Car Dealers.

Link to my Triumph Car Dealers Flickr group which includes many photos of Standard Triumph garages etc from my collection and many other contributors .

I have a collection of Standard Triumph car dealer directories: http://vitessesteve.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/triumph-car-dealer-directories.html

Picture credits: Halls (Finchley) Ltd rear window sticker photo posted to flickr by spottedlaurel; Frein Barnet Photo Archive advert 1979 from the Frein Barnet Photo Archive; Halls of Finchley invoice 28 June 1968 + Halls of Finchley invoice 8 May 1979 both from the Friern Barnet Photo Archive;

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